Monday, June 29, 2015

Oh my goodness! I can't believe its my third week out here. This last week just flew by!

This last week was HOT! Yesterday it was 102 and my companion and I went tracting for 2 hours. She was sick on Saturday so we needed to make sure we hit our goals on Sunday and we did!

I knew missionary work was hard work, but I didn't realize how hard until this week! Seriously.

The little town of Delta is a lot like Yakima I've decided. Very agricultural and very spread out. But you honestly can't beat a Colorado sunset. It's almost like you can reach out and touch it and the clouds look like you can grab them right out of the sky. Simply beautiful.

I've gotten to experience several thunder and lightning storms. They're so beautiful... So long as they're from a distance.

On Wednesday I got to go on exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders, they're Spanish speaking and serve in the San Juan Branch. Before I continue, let me establish that I have NOT used Spanish since High School in my Sophomore year. Yet I was able to understand a lot of what these people were saying. I was able not only able to speak with them but I was able to bear my testimony... IN SPANISH with vocabulary I had never even learned! The gift of tongues is real, and it's not even my assigned language!

Sister Koenig and I are working hard here in Delta. We live in a little town house by ourselves. Apparently its one of the best living situations in the mission. We have more space than we can even use but its nice and we have a lot of privacy. Our next door neighbor is a member and she has two little boys. She feeds us about twice a week and always makes sure we are taken care of. Thankfully, we have a car with magnificent AC.

Sorry this email is a little shorter this week the letter to my mission president took longer than expected!

I love you all and thank you for your cards, letters, and emails! They are truly appreciated!

Love,

Sister Voss

Here is the pic for this week! This is Sister Koenig and I! She is my mom. Which is missionary speak for "she's my trainer and first companion out here on the mission." And a good ol' Colorado sunset!

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Things are pretty great here in Colorado. Not as intense as the MTC. We actually have time to breathe here in the field. So far I really enjoy it here. I love my mission president & his wife. They have had some amazing revelations as to how to better the mission. Last month our mission was the first spot in baptisms in the North America missions. We have a goal for one baptism & family/member reactivation a month and we have been pretty successful!

Our mission does this challenge every now & then where we read the Book of Mormon in a transfer (42 days!) and we are doing it this transfer. We are supposed to go in & highlight any references to the Savior * then we write His names/titles in the back pages. So far we are on day 7 and I have over 45 written down. It just goes to show that the Book of Mormon really does testify of Christ! More even than the Bible! I was reading somewhere that the BoM mentions the Savior on an average 1.7 verses compared to every 3.8 in the Bible. If we abide by the commandments in the BoM, we will come unto Christ by it's power more than any other book in existence. After just a week my BoM has more green than white on it's pages. In particular 2 Nephi 9. My testimony of Christ has been growing by leaps and bounds, it blows my mind. The Book of Mormon brings us closer to God without a doubt.

I encourage everyone to read the BoM in 50 days (10 pages a day) and highlight all of the references to our beloved Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. I promise you will all know the truthfulness of it and you will know that it truly testifies of Christ. I love the Book of Mormon & I love that I get to be a missionary of Christ and teach everyone about His true and restored gospel!

I love you all so much and I miss you like crazy! My companion and I are absolutely on fire with the spirit & we are already seeing miracles and accomplishing mighty things.

Thank you all for your letters, I really appreciate them! It's way better to get mail all week than have to hold out for p-day to hear from everyone. We only get 30 minutes to check and respond to emails, but I can write letters any time!

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

This is my first companion, Sister Messinger, and I. She is in the Montrose Zone, Fruita district in the Fruita 2nd ward... yes.... Fruita is the name...

This is of my nametag. This is the only time in my life where my name will be above Jesus Christ. What an honour that is! **FUN FACT** here in the CDSM (Colorado Den. So Mission) we Choose The Right and wear our nametags on the right.

At the temple ground our last Sunday at the MTC. We shared a Zone with an American Sign Language branch who is there for another two weeks by now. I learn a LOT of sign language and have actually been able to use quite a bit here.

This is of a sweet little friend that Br. and Sis Lamar sent me! love the matching shirt!

My companion and I on the plane on the way out to Colorado. Our District Leader is in the row behind us on the Left, Elder Powell, and his companion Elder Workman. Both are valiant disciples of Christ.

I know a lot of you were hoping to get emails yesterday but the library was closed!

Last Monday we flew out to Colorado. Our flight was supposed to leave at 830 am but because of air traffic and then a power surge we didn't take off until 1120. It was really frustrating! We just wanted to get to Colorado! But my companion and I got share the gospel with quite a few people. We placed a Book of Mormon and gave people info for Mormon.org. It was a great experience.

Once we finally arrived we met our mission president and mission mom, President and Sister Murdock. They are some amazing and truly inspired people! We spent the first day at the mission home, had an orientation, and got to know our "Mission parents". Tuesday morning we had transfer meeting starting at 645 am. No joke. Geographically, our mission is HUGE! I was assigned to serve on the "Western Slope" in the Montrose Zone in the Delta/Uncompahgre (Un-kum-pah-gray) Ward. They assign those who are going out to the Western Slope first because it quite literally takes 4 hours to get out to Grand Junction where there is another transfer meeting going on. We get off, and then those who are assigned to go back to the Central area leave and they don't get back until 730 8pm.

We got on the "transfer train" which is really just a fancy way of saying "packing 20 missionaries into 2 vans and a truck with a giant trailer on the back with your luggage, and caravanning several hundred miles". I am in a little town called Delta and I am quite literally the furthest away from the mission home that I can get in our mission. I'm closer to Utah than Denver! Hahahaha! My companion (trainer) Sister Keonig (Kay-nig) is the greatest AND she is from Edmonds WA! Crazy, right?! She is a power house and has been out here for 14months!

Delta is really hot this time of year. It was 104 degrees on Saturday. Needless to say we didn't do much tracting. It's a very small little town, smaller than Sequim, but the field is white for harvest! In just the week that I have been here, Sister Keonig and I have seen some amazing miracles! I taught my first lesson unassisted my 2nd day out here and it was astonishing how much the Holy Ghost prompted and ran that lesson. I think I remember maybe half of what I said.

I know everyone is getting restless to know what my address is so here it is:

Sister Voss

665 Bluff Place

APT B

Delta CO 81416

I would absolutely LOVE to receive letters from you, it makes the week go by faster and I can write during the week instead of just in my one hour on P-days! You'd be surprised how quickly it goes by!

I love you all and I love getting your replies. Please know that I read them even if I don't reply. Every single one of you mean the world to me, and I am so thankful to have such a giant family to be supporting me while I am out here serving the people of Colorado.

Friday, June 12, 2015

Today is P-day. Hallelujah! Our zone has come up with our own holiday, "P-day Eve". It's a real thing. If we can just make it to P-day Eve we will be okay!

Things have been CRAZY here! We are literally fitting a 21 Day curriculum into 12 days. No joke... And it is a killer. But it is so amazing. This week Sister Messinger and I have really started to teach by the spirit. We have been getting out of our heads and been getting into our hearts and helping that guide the lessons we teach to our investigators. We have made some miraculous progress with 2 of them and one of them took a huge step in praying last night. She hasn't prayed in 13 years!

We've been learning so MUCH! It is astonishing how much the Holy Ghost helps you remember everything!

Tuesday night we had our Devotional and we had Linda K. Burton, the President of RS Gen Presidency, speak with us! What a wonderful experience. I participated in the choir, yes, I'm that predictable!

Today we are wrapping up as we leave at zero-dark-thirty (330 am to be exact) on Monday morning to head to COLORADO!!!! I'm so excited to hit the field.

I still can't get pictures uploaded here. But will have a TON for you next week :)

Thank you all for your wonderful replies and your letters. I have loved getting every single one of them. I am working on replies but because free time is impossible here (even on P-days) It is taking me longer to write them.

I love you all and miss you all but I love this work dearly.

Sister Voss

P.S.

ALSO!

Don't send any more letters until I get you my new address. If you send them now I won't get them before I leave on Monday and I don't think mail forwarding is an option here with the high turnover rate!

Friday, June 5, 2015

Oh my goodness! I don't even know where to start! Today is my P-day and next Friday will be too. Wow. These last three days have been amazing! Tuesday night I parted ways with the wonderful Erica Sandau (I love her!) and got to stay with Mama Chums (Grace Chumley) and her son and daughter-in-law. Wednesday morning I packed up, and we met with Zach, whom many of you remember, and had pizza. They dropped me off at the MTC where the whirlwind began!

I got my name tag, which was definitely a tear jerking moment for me. Dropped my bags off, and then headed up to my classroom to meet my companion. Steve Brown, I'm SO glad we ran because my dorm room and my classroom are quite literally at opposite ends of the campus. AND to top it off, my classroom is on the 5th floor.... 72 stairs, yes I counted. I cannot even count how many times a day we climb those buggers.

After dragging myself up those stairs, I met my companion, Sister Messinger (pronounced like messenger, as in messenger of God, way cool). I walked in and I heard "You must be Sister Voss! You're my companion!" And I was bombarded by 5ft 2in of blonde!First of all, let me start off by saying I LOVE SISTER MESSINGER!!! I was so worried because I'm a very independant and strong woman. I thought I would either crush my companion with my personality or hate her. It is neither of those! Bishop Judd, this sister is the very definition of a power house! I never thought I could grow to love someone as quickly as I came to love her. She is 24, from Arizona, has her degree in theatre and speech therapy and before her mission she taught children's theatre. Her love for the gospel and the savior is mind blowing to me. She is a true gem. We have so much in common, but in these first few days we have found that whatever I lack, she has; and whatever she lacks, I have. Yesterday was a really hard day for her. She was doubting why she was here and was feeling really overwhelmed. I didn't really know how to help her because she was struggling with very personal feelings. We have been serving each other in every way we can but I felt like I could only be there for her as a physical human being. Or so I thought.

Later that evening we met with our Branch Presidency. They're the best! Pres and Sis. Brown, Hall, and Clark. Sister Hall is from England and also a convert. I got to speak one on one with President Brown and he told me all about comapnionships and that the best thing I could do for Sister Messinger, or any companion I have, is to pray for her, and serve her. Bingo! I could pray for her!

That evening we had our companionship prayer and I prayed for her. In my personal prayer I prayed for her and for my morning personal prayer I prayed for her. This morning, she woke up completely recharged and ready to tackle the day. She is a true warrior in Christ!

I testify that this companionship was inspired of our Heavenly Father who knows exactly what and who we need in our lives to become successful missionaries, or even children of God for that matter. And I testify that if we put the needs of our brothers and sisters, children of God, first, we in turn will be blessed and strengthened.

I am running out of time but I love you all! I will reply to you next week! I will also figure out how to upload pictures here.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Sister Voss has been safely deposited at the MTC! Thank you to Grace and Zach for getting her there safe and sound. She will be there for approximately two weeks, and then off to serve the wonderful people of Colorado. Here are some pictures from this morning!

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

I absolutely cannot believe that tomorrow I will be reporting to the MTC at 1:15. This seems so unreal!

These last couple of days have been truly wonderful! I flew into SLC yesterday where Erica Sandau (Sister Sandau who served in Sequim, she's in the "selfie" with me) and her fiancé picked me up. They are both wonderful RMs. We went up to bountiful and saw the temple, which is gorgeous. And then chilled with Erica and her family (also wonderful people)

I got to go to the Salt Lake Temple today and it was a phenomenal experience. I got much needed answers to prayers that I needed.

Tonight I said goodbye to Erica and am staying with Grace Chumley tonight, for those of you who remember her when she lived in Sequim.

I finally got my address for the MTC if any of you would like to send letters then please feel free. Keep in mind I will only be there for about 2 weeks (from what I've heard through the grape vine)